The Community Service Fund

Each year, APS employees donate more than $2.7 million to charity through the company's Community Service Fund (CSF) campaign supporting United Way.

Of those donors more than 1,240 APS employees, nearly 20 percent, give at the Leadership Giver level - that's $1,000 or more from an individual to United Way and the organizations it supports.

That means these employees gave roughly $1.6 million in 2007, making APS as a whole the top Leadership Giver for the state.

"About 10 years ago when we really began putting some energy behind our Leadership Giving campaign, APS had 180 employees giving at that level," said Kendra Cea, APS Technical Account Representative, who has been a volunteer with United Way for more than 10 years and currently serves as the co-chair of the APS Leadership Giving Society. "Now we distribute more than 1,200 Leadership Giver shirts each year to employees donating at that level."

And in the company's 2007-2008 CSF campaign more than 1,300 employees will donate at the Leadership Giver level. Not only do APS managers, officers and leaders contribute at this level, but more than ever so do frontline employees.The CSF Campaign is an employee-driven and employee-run campaign with more than 165 employees volunteering their time to stage events, give presentations, collect and account for the donations. The company has been a long-standing and stalwart supporter of the United Way and its programs.

It's a sentiment shared by Don Robinson, APS Senior Vice President of Planning and Administration.

"I continue to be truly proud and impressed by the efforts of our employees in supporting our CSF program," said Robinson, who is also the company's CSF Executive Sponsor. "Once again our program has more Leadership Givers than any company in the state and we continue to increase that number on an annual basis.

"The funds collected through this program will provide much-needed assistance and support to numerous people in the state. I am very happy to have been associated with the volunteer leaders of this program and very proud of our employees."

In addition to monetary donations, APS employees have given more than 170,000 hours of volunteer time to more than 400 charitable, cultural and educational organizations and programs throughout Arizona and New Mexico. The volunteer work is estimated to be worth more than $3 million to local communities. 

And in 2007, the APS Volunteer Program was named a finalist by the Points of Light Foundation for its Awards for Excellence in Workplace Volunteer Programs. The foundation chooses finalists based on a company's overall employee volunteer effort, including its program policies, community service projects and the corporate vision that supports those volunteer activities.

In fact, this year United Way of Northern Arizona presented the employees of the APS-run Cholla Power Plant with its Leading the Charge Award for being the largest United Way contributor in the Northeast Arizona region; San Juan United Way recognized the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico as one of its pacesetter companies for its United Way efforts; and Valley of the Sun United Way created a new category, the $3 Million Club, of which APS is the first and only member, for the contribution made by APS employees and the company exceeding that number.